CHICAGO—The Chicago co-working scene has been expanding in the past year, and now has a new player. MakeOffices, a leading national coworking and private office space company, will officially open its first two Chicago locations on February 1, one at 350 N. Orleans St. in River North, and the other at One North State in the Central Loop. Combined, the two sites will eventually add about 130,000 square feet to the city's growing inventory of co-working space, which seems likely to grow even further this year.
"We are starting to see the rise of the new hybrid employee, and they need office space," MakeOffices chief executive officer Raymond Rahbar tells GlobeSt.com. This expanding group includes entrepreneurs, freelancers, and those working for businesses with five or fewer employees. Furthermore, "Chicago has emerged as a strong innovation hub with a world-class startup ecosystem and a rich talent pool, making it a natural city for MakeOffices expansion."
MakeOffices began in Washington, DC, where it has about 200,000 square feet of co-working space. "That is completely sold out," Rahbar adds, which helped give the company the confidence to begin expanding to other cities. "Chicago is a much bigger market than DC, and Chicago is a traditional city with a dense downtown; that density helps co-working a lot." Sixteen companies are already on board at the River North site.
The company provides tenants with office infrastructure and all-inclusive amenities, including fast WiFi and 24/7 access. Each MakeOffices location will also provide users with a diverse array of spaces, each of which will serve a different need. The River North site, for example, will have about 45,000 square feet and feature 145 private offices, 112 open desks, 11 conference rooms, 10 private call rooms, a 50-person training area, a huge kitchen and a 4,500 square foot community hub that doubles as a 200-person event space, perfect for "product launches or to celebrate the anniversary of a company."
Rahbar expects that many of their Chicago users will come from smallish firms or individuals tied to the city's rich and burgeoning tech scene, but adds that co-working "is not what it was even ten or fifteen years ago," and it is now not unusual to see big companies take up space in these new hubs of activity.
"We have everyone under the sun now," he says. "We are seeing a big push from Fortune 500 firms that want to be a part of our offices." Sometimes "they need a presence in a certain location, such as Chicago, but don't want to sign a ten-year lease," and rather than being isolated in a small office, in a co-working space their employees will be able to network with peers and have access to a host of amenities.
MakeOffices will eventually have three floors and 75,000 square feet at One North State. The first floor with a 200-person event space will open February 1, followed by a second floor on October 1, and planned expansion to the full size in 2018. And in early February, the company expects to announce details about a Streeterville location. "We are focused on Chicago," Rahbar says, "and making sure we do it right."
The Avison Young brokerage team of Nate Krill, John Ziesmer and Kevin Moore is representing MakeOffices in their Chicago lease transactions.
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Brian J. Rogal
Brian J. Rogal is a Chicago-based freelance writer with years of experience as an investigative reporter and editor, most notably at The Chicago Reporter, where he concentrated on housing issues. He also has written extensively on alternative energy and the payments card industry for national trade publications.
